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Wednesday, 30 May 2012

Revision vs Procrastination

Revision is by far the worst thing about exam
period.

I don’t actually mind the exams themselves because
once I’m in there, it’s a case of writing what I do know and hoping for the
best. I’m usually pretty good at convincing myself that there’s nothing wrong
with exams and that they are easy – a complete and utter lie, to be honest.
They’re not easy because they’re not supposed to be easy. I have a complicated
history with exams. I don’t believe they’re necessary or even helpful in
gauging how much somebody has picked up. Nobody does their best work under
timed conditions and when else in life are you going to have to do something
similar? However, I do like doing them once I start. It’s just like writing an
essay. Yes, that does mean I am usually left to complete my essays and
coursework in about a two hour period.

The worst thing is revision. I never know quite what
to study in preparation and I’m one of those people who, if I revise too much,
end up completely brain dead in the exam hall with no idea whatsoever where I’m
supposed to go from there. I’ve just had an exam yesterday. When did I start
revising? Well, I had revision scheduled for Friday afternoon, Sunday and
Monday. I actually started revising on Monday. I do not recommend this at all.
Once I got into the exam it took me a while to hit my stride but most of me
wished I’d had a little bit longer to go over my notes. Hopefully I’ll be able
to schedule some revision in for my exam tomorrow and the one from Friday. Who
knows. I’ve never been very good at balancing revision and exams.

Oh well. Whatever will be, will be, I guess. I’m
going to try and do my best but with the knowledge that I can’t take resists
due to conflicts with my clearing work, I’m going to have to try my hardest to
get a good grade and not fail.

Of course, the whole point of my failure to revise
comes from my love of procrastination. I think we’ve all been there at some
point. Some of the ways I distract myself: Google becomes my best friend. I once
used Google maps to determine how I was supposed to go from Russia to Japan and
ended up with a ridiculous answer:

Yes, these are things I do. I also talk to my phone
a lot. Now, something you should know about me is that my nickname with my
friends is Siri. It has been this way for years and when the iPhone 4s was
released, I was amused to learn that they had named their AI interface after
me. It was hilarious to my friends and continued to be for me as well because
the name I programmed into the phone was Siri. So this is the sort of thing
that happens when I talk to Siri:

That probably didn’t amuse you but it did me, so.

The other thing I do to distract myself from exams
is to indulge in a little retail therapy. Not just any retail therapy but
SHOES. I have a thing about custom shoes at the moment. I’m a big fan of Chuck
Taylors because they are amazing shoes and so comfortable. I walked into Office
in London and, if you read the previous entries, you would know I have a thing
about comics. WELL. When I walked into Office, these stood out at me:

I have batman themed chucks! They were the greatest
purchase of the year (so far). That does include my iPad but only because the
shoes are new – I’m sure given time, I’ll purchase something just as awesome.
For now...

If only they had magical properties... maybe I’ll
wear them into the exam and they’ll bring me luck via happiness....